Just in case a prestigious institution (or any institution, really), came knocking on my door looking for a commencement speaker, I’d prepared a few notes for the graduates of 2011. But graduation has come and gone, just like those “Congratulations!” cards at Walgreens which graduates hope contain money. (When my brother “graduated” from 8th grade, we caught him in a corner at his party, opening the envelopes and then shaking the cards without reading them to see if there was cash inside). I could never give a good graduation speech, though, because Maya Angelou already gave the best one ever here in Illinois in 2002. She sang; it was magical.
In my job working with students, however, it is helpful (for my sanity) to remember how amazing people who are mostly fully formed are, how much potential they have, how much we can learn from them. It helpful because on a lot of days, I want to smash their hands in my office door. Just this month alone I’ve been lied to, yelled at, insulted, sat too close to, sneezed on, and told about 785 stories of dead grandparents, usually in far-off lands to which the students must flee immediately, thereby missing all of their final exams.
from the heart 